Vancouver Travel Loveland CO

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Vancouver: a British Columbia Jewel

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Vancouver: a British Columbia JewelBy Charles Shugart, Jr.

Vancouver is Canada’s third largest city (metro population of 2,250,000), after Toronto and Montreal. Comparable in beauty and international sophistication to San Francisco, Vancouver has the additional benefit of high mountains just north of the city.

The area has been populated for thousands of years by Native Americans. Like those who arrived later, the native people benefited from the mild climate, good fishing, and abundance of trees. Western red cedar trees were perfect for making boats. Hollow them out with stone tools, shape them so they were sea-worthy, carve paddles for the men, and away they went.

The first non-native to visit the region was a Spanish boat captain—Jose Maria Narvaez—in 1791. Captain George Vancouver arrived in 1792, representing England.

Although some of the coastline was mapped and prominent geographic places named, no real settling by Europeans happened until after Simon Fraser crossed the northern part of the continent in 1808. Coming down the Fraser River (named after him, of course), he met the Pacific Ocean at what was to become the city of Vancouver. Even after that, however, there were few settlements until the gold discoveries along tributaries to the Fraser River starting in the 1860s. At that time, the importance of Vancouver as a shipping port quickly became apparent. Crossing the continent by land was still a lengthy journey; sailing around the Horn of South America was much better—although it also was a long and dangerous undertaking.

As the west coast of British Canada became settled, there was an obvious need for a transcontinental railroad linking British Columbia to the rest of Canada. But it was an expensive and lengthy undertaking, and the federal government was loath to begin. That is, they were until British Columbia basically said, “Build us a railroad or we’ll ask the United States to annex us.” Construction of the rail line began not long afterward.

Vancouver was the logical western terminus for the tracks, so the Canadian Pacific Railroad was built in 1887—from the Canadian prairies across the Rockies near Banff, and following the Thompson and Fraser rivers to the sea. This led to much greater and faster growth.

The Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and 98 had considerable impact also. Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco were the ports from which tens of thousands of Argonauts set sail up the Inside Passage.

Starting in the latter years of the 20th century, Vancouver has become a real melting pot of newcomers from all over the world. Some of the greatest impact has been from the Hong Kong Chinese. Fleeing the erstwhile “British Crown Colony” before China laid legal claim to Hong Kong in 1997 (Britain’s lease was up), these Chinese businessmen grabbed their British passports, families and considerable bank accounts and crossed the ocean. Thousands poured into Vancouver. Their impact has been profou...

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